You might remember that last year I created a kickstarter where I basically just asked for $200 to make whatever the hell I wanted in game form. I set a release date, made fun of Kickstarter, and went quiet for a few months. At the appropriate date, I released Funeral, a semi-success that was a lot harder for me to actually make than it would seem.

I took the money of random people and then delivered the exact nebulous product they wanted in the time frame that I promised. It is literally in the 1% of Kickstarters.

So with that in mind, the next game that I make will be a horror game that is probably not all that scary. It will be sort of side scrolly and you can’t jump and most of the time it will be about interacting with things and talking to people instead of doing anything game-y. What I am looking at is Hugo’s House of Horrors mixed with “His Face All Red” in a tortilla made out of Tom Gauld comics. Side dishes include: that scary scene where Bob crawls over the couch in Twin Peaks, Dan Clowes’ Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, and some Dear Estherisms.

I want to make a funny game that has some scary parts. I want to make it available for free on the internet. I would like $125 to do that.

If you liked any of my previous games or any of the writing on this blog, think about kicking in some Canadian lunch money.

4 Responses to I Have Launched A Kickstarter for A Scary Game

I get the feeling you don’t like me, and chances are you will ignore this anyway, but please don’t ask for so much money. If you are planning this as another parody, don’t ask for so much, especially if you are trying to “make fun of Kickstarter” again. I’ve seen enough indie developers that actually needed the money fail that your parody seems rather mean spirited to them and me.

If you don’t actually need the money, and the amount raised won’t affect the quality of the game in any real way, donate it or use it to do some good. Please.

I asked for $125 because it will cover the cost of development in that it will compensate me for the time I am going to spend on the game. It will also give me the chance to pay an almost-insultingly low amount of money to someone to make some music for the game. I definitely think that kickstarter is a useful tool for funding (I’m using it), but I also think the expectation system that has been built up around kickstarter is a little ridiculous and I can’t hide that feeling, nor do I want to.

I want to make a game that will go out into the world for free. I could eat development costs, and I generally do, but using the kickstarter essentially allows me to subsidize the game experiences of hundreds of people with the contributions of a few people who willingly decide to give me money to work on something. In that sense, I don’t see how my crowdfunding campaign is markedly different from any other one.

All of that said, thanks for taking the time to look at the campaign and to comment here. I enjoy your work and the Twine tutorials you did a little while back, and I think that work is invaluable to community building.

Well, if nothing else, I highly encourage you to write about the process of making a game in Construct 2 once the Kickstater ends. It’s on my own list of tools to eventually learn and perhaps make howto videos on, but it will be months before I get there myself. Given that you are already posting GIFs, the occasional screenshot or video — I’m willing to give advice on that — could go a long way toward helping others achieve the same things you have.

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This is a blog about video games, comic books, film, and philosophy. It is mostly research-oriented stuff. The art in the current header is from Prophet #29. The blog icon was made by Tara Ogaick.